Having a greener fleet may be more common sense than color sense.

It's a perfect morning in Connecticut when more than 15,000 homeowners and businesses lose power. They will be in the dark for several hours while utility crews identify the cause and repair the damage.

Opportunity to reinvent designs from the ground up

Many utility industry operators are looking for new ways to maximize their investment in communication networks while ensuring reliable, secure data transmission.

The joint imperatives of 9/11 and the smart grid have created a massive amount of power utilities development and retrofit activity. The need to protect the security of power installations and the data that is passing in increasing quantities within and among substations and central offices is high.

Norris Public Power District provides wholesale and retail electric service to 44 communities in five counties across southeast Nebraska. Dedicated to providing its 18,000 customers with safe, reliable and affordable energy service, the non-profit, publicly-owned company strives to keep rates low while providing the highest quality service, which enables customers to achieve their business and personal goals.

For utility and telecommunication technicians working in the field each day, the value they place on their equipment has little to do with its price. Instead, it is the product's ability to make technicians more productive without compromising safety that they find most significant.